Titel: Het marketen van onderzoeksjournalisten
Datum en tijd: 16 november 2013, 14:00 uur – 15:15 uur
Spreker: Mark Briggs
Moderator: Hannes Cattebeke
Aantal deelnemers: 18
door Jitse Schipper
Advice from Mark Briggs about entrepreneurship for journalists:
People don’t buy what you do, but why you do it.
So make sure you know why you’re doing it. You have to sell it, so make sure it has meaning.
Creativity is the new literacy
Think of new ideas (example: Chase Jarvis built first app to share pictures of your meals)
It’s business time
The influence model:
– influence makes markets
– Quality content creates influence
How do you make money?
Think of creative business models: sponsorships, grants, freelance fees, underwriting, donations
What else can you do?
The old generation had one job, the current generation has five jobs, the new generation has to have five jobs at the same time: teach classes, custom research, freelance writing, custom services, etcetera. Passion doesn’t pay the bills, sometimes you have to use your journalism skills for non-journalism jobs, so you can buy meals, so you can do journalism the next day.
Should you do journalism to make money? (=utopism) Or make money so you can do journalism?
Websites to sell your work:
– website Elance: hiring freelancers (it’s global, also in Dutch)
– website oDesk: people post jobs, you can bid on the jobs. They give the money before you hand in your work, so you’re sure you get paid.
Build yourself as a brand
– Use internet to promote yourself
- You can get a job because of social media, don’t underestimate the power of those platforms. But you have to learn how to use them for your own benefit.
- Twitter: link aggregation. Even if you write few stories yourself, share stories from others. You already read those stories (to get smarter at that topic). By retweeting them you build an audience that’s interested in that topic.
- Youtube is another platform, more than a billion monthly users. YouTube is a good channel to distribute. Find your nitch.
- LinkedIn: over four million Dutch users
– Specialize (why are you doing what you do?) – that’s what people want, they want your passion
What is your vision?
1. define your misson – what’s your story? (make it made to stick)
2. measure your mission – is you audience (= market) interested?
3. pursue your mission – with maximum passion and energy
You can do anything… But you can’t do everything
Time = money, so:
– … time management is essential. Some advice:
- meetings: try to group them on days (e.g. next Tuesday), make sure you plan other appointments on the same day
that way you don’t have to switch from concentration mode to meeting mode - don’t check your e-mail/Twitter/Facebook all the time; choose for example two moments a day
- force yourself to rest
that way, you can make better decisions the next day
– … you need help
- Do you have a ‘pirate ship’?
means: some people are in it because of the cause, they feel like they have to
but you need partner ships
so partner with a specified magazine for the one subject; partner with a specified tv-network for the other subject - “Life is about the people you meet and things you create with them”
Make something people want
“If you make something (people) want, they will be happy and you can translate that happiness into money.” – Paul Graham
You can make a story because you want it, but is it also a story someone else wants it? The answer: do customer research.
Should you do work for free?
If the free work you’re going to do is aligned to your mission, it will pay off. If it is the opposite, then it is not a good idea.
